Not The Favorite

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Don't Call me Britney Spears

No, I'm not going to go on a tirade about Britney Spears. I am, however, boycotting all TV shows that are about parents and their new babies, ei. TLC’s Baby Story/Bringing Home Baby and Life Network’s Birth Stories. I am so sick and tired of watching these new parents spend so much time trying to keep their babies safe and sound and then so carelessly put them in to an improperly installed and misused car seat. I can’t believe the time parents-to-be spend on getting all the new safety products for their home and then not take the time to make sure that the number one safety product they could ever possibly own for their child is correctly used. They say that most of the child seats in cars today are improperly installed. I believe it. Jon and I took a long time to make sure that our infant car seat was installed properly. We tried it ourselves just find out how ridiculously difficult it is to install that first car seat base. I wouldn’t let up about it being installed right until we had a friend of ours, who has 4 kids and whose mom teaches a car seat clinic, show us how.

I have friends who I thought would have the sense to put their car seat in correctly, just hap-hazardly put the seat in without properly leveling it or locking the seat belt in place, and then not tighten the straps on the baby or properly place the chest buckle. Then again, these are the people that didn’t feel it necessary to strap their three month old into his vibrating chair but that's a whole other parenting rant.

These TV shows should enforce that the parents properly use car seats so that the viewers will see how to responsibly/properly transport a baby in a car. I get so angry because it takes no time at all to tighten a strap and put the buckle in the right position on the baby’s chest. Some might think that the baby will be hurt or feel smothered by tightened straps. If anything, a newborn baby will find comfort in being in the seat so secure, why do you think they like swaddling so much?? And how many times have I driven past a car just to see the car seat handle still up?

I believe that every parent should attend a mandatory car seat clinic before they are allowed to leave the hospital with their new baby. It’s not enough that the nurse makes sure you have a car seat, she needs to make sure you know how to use it. Someone needs to make sure that baby is safe on their drive home and not become a projectile object if an accident should occur.

I know that I'm not a perfect parent, none of use are, but safety is not something I take lightly. I know that by making sure she is as safe as she can possibly be in our car that I am doing the best that I can for her. I'm not that naive to think that "because we're just going to the store" something potentially deadly couldn't happen in those 5 minutes.

I just wish other people would be as serious and conscientious about car safety as myself and my family.

Car Sear Safety 2006

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posted by LadyLipgloss at 10:59 AM

1 Comments:

I feel the need to extend your rant to the next most disturbing trend in road safety. Cell Phones. I don't, however, want to target the average Joe. I want the cops. That's right. The same asshole who is gonna give me a ticket and a lecture is the person I see most often on the phone. But wait, there is more. The idiot is probably updating his info screen on the computer between the driver and passenger seat. He is updating with info that has come from the cell. He is using that info to pull me over to give me a ticket for speeding, and using my phone.

That burns my biscuits.

4:26 PM  

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